Water slide toys for use at home are commonly known in the prior art. Existing water slides typically use an elongate sheet of flexible material, such as plastic, laid on the ground and covered with a thin layer of water to decrease friction in order to enable people to slide across the material. There are various means for attaching the slide sheet to the ground and for supplying a more or less constant layer of water onto the upper surface of the sheet.
It has been found that to enhance the play value of such water slide toys, a body board can be used to ride on and cushion the body of a person landing on and sliding down the elongate slide sheet. A body board not only can provide a cushioning effect to make the ride more comfortable, but can also enhance the excitement of the ride.
Prior art body boards for the type of water slides discussed here were originally adapted from body boards (sometimes referred to as "boogie boards") and surfboards used for surfing or otherwise riding on the ocean. Because such ocean boards are designed for use on a large body of water, it is unnecessary for the boards to include padding since the ocean water yields to the weight of the user and effectively creates a natural cushion. Consequently, ocean surfboards and body boards are not particularly suitable for adaptation for use on land-based water slides. If a modified ocean board is used on a water slide, even if the board is an air inflated version, it provides limited improvement.
At least some of the prior art water slide body boards were flat and rigid and were made from hard materials, such as compressed foam, for example, somewhat as ocean boards are made. However, as discussed, the rigidity and hardness of these body boards offer limited comfort to the user on a water slide. Moreover, such prior art body boards are cumbersome and the user's body tends to slide laterally off the hard board.
Consequently, air-inflated body boards were developed to eliminate these and similar problems. These prior art air-inflated body boards tended to merely follow the designs used in ocean boards, which are generally inadequate to provide sufficient cushioning for the user's body. Furthermore, prior art air-inflated body boards do not prevent a user's body from sliding laterally off the board. In addition, prior art body boards were generally of uniform width and, therefore, were cumbersome to use and interfered with the user's leg movement.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide water slide body boards that have an ergonometric design which cushions the user's body during use on a land-based water slide.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide water slide body boards that have a design which tends to prevent the user's body from laterally sliding off the body board.
Another object of the present invention is to provide water slide body boards that have a design which tends to prevent the user's body from sliding forward off the body board.
A further object of the present invention is to provide water slide body boards that are not cumbersome to use and do not interfere with the user's leg movements.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a body board for a water slide that is relatively inexpensive to manufacture.